Anesthesia may be administered to a patient in the form of a gas to produce an effect such as pain management, unconsciousness, preventing memory formation, and/or paralysis. A predetermined dosage of the administered anesthetic may be inhaled into the patient's lungs to produce one or more of these effects.
Anesthesia systems may include an anesthesia machine coupled with a vaporizer system. Conventional vaporizer systems regulate anesthetic dosage in the gas phase. More precisely, some conventional vaporizer systems raise the temperature of the anesthetic to its vaporization point and thereafter regulate the concentration of delivered anesthetic gas such that the output concentration is maintained at a preselected target concentration.
One problem with some vaporizer systems is that a valve coupled to a vaporizer may be required to deliver varying flow rates of anesthetic liquid to the vaporizer. In some cases, valves having a larger range of liquid flow capability may be relatively expensive when compared to valves having a smaller range of liquid flow.